40 years ago, there seemed to be no terrorist threat, but in today's world it seems we have people and groups of people that will stop at nothing to hurt, maim and kill others, even children. This invention involves a wellhead that is protected by an anti-alteration well vault. The vault enhances the security of our precious water supply and protects the safety of water supply consumers. This protected wellhead will go a long way toward protecting municipal and private well water supplies and could be used also to protect oil or gas wells, whether active or abandoned, from alteration, including not only tampering, vandalism, and terrorism, but also intentional and unintentional damage and intrusion by both human and non-human perpetrators.
It is common and usually necessary, in the provision of well water to a small community water system, to have a portion of the water delivery system, including upper end of the well and associated connections, above ground. This portion is known as a wellhead. The wellhead provides an air source in order for the pump to function properly and the final connection from the water supply to a private dwelling is attached at the wellhead. The wellhead is frequently located in unobtrusive, sparsely populated areas and therefore extremely vulnerable to malicious vandalism and terrorism, and various kinds of accidents.
Although various locking mechanisms and security chain systems have been used to protect wellheads from malicious tampering, easily available portable power tools can defeat most of these protections easily, quickly, and inconspicuously. This invention effectively decreases the possibility of a terrorist or local malicious vandal covertly tampering with the water supply through the wellhead.
These and other difficulties experienced with the prior art devices have been obviated in a novel manner by the present invention.
It is, therefore, an outstanding object of some embodiments of the present invention to provide a system for protecting the wellhead of a water supply from undesired alteration, both intentional and accidental, and including vandalism and terrorism.
It is another outstanding object of some embodiments of the present invention to provide a system for protecting the wellhead of a water supply from undesired alteration, that is cost-effective.
With these and other objects in view, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the invention resides in the combination of parts set forth in the specification and covered by the claims appended hereto, it being understood that changes in the precise embodiment of the invention herein disclosed may be made within the scope of what is claimed without departing from the spirit of the invention.